West Valley View, Avondale, Arizona, Friday, April 13, 2012


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Smiths (From Page 11)


couldn’t get anything going.” The victory was a big one for Estrella (26-0), as it had been playing a bunch of cupcakes lately. Verrado (17-6) gave the Lady Wolves a solid test, and they were up to the challenge. “That’s the thing we kind of talked about, this is a


preview of what we’re going to be seeing down the road,” Estrella coach Rick Brungardt said. “They’re a talented team, decent on defense, not many chinks in their armor, so we had to come out and play some good ball.” Until Tuesday, Estrella had won its last six games by the mercy rule. It wasn’t the first time the Lady Wolves were facing Verrado though, as the teams had met March 17 in the semifinals of the Payson tournament. Estrella won that encounter, 6-3, also against Shea Smith. She pitched pretty well this time around, but Estrella capitalized on a couple of Verrado errors in the second inning to score twice. “Sometimes it comes down to that little mistake at the


Estrella got three runs in the second to take the lead. Lenora Brafford led off with a triple to right to get the Lady Wolves going. “I knew my job, I knew that’s what I had to do,”


worst possible time, things don’t go your way, but I’m proud of the way they played,” Stringer said. “They really played overall pretty good defense, we just got beat by a better team today.”


Brafford said. “I’ve had a lot of confidence hitting in the past couple weeks and when I saw the pitch I knew it was right down the middle so I just took it for a ride.” Dustie Durham followed with an RBI double off the


wall in left to give Estrella a 1-0 lead. “I was excited because I was in a slump and that pulled me out,” Durham said. “I was pumped for this game.” Estrella then used its small ball and aggressiveness on the bases to force Verrado into its two mistakes. Durham moved to third on a ground out, and Sarah Trammell laid down a bunt that she beat out for an infield hit. Durham held up at third on the bunt, but the throw to first went down the right-field line, allowing Durham to score. Another sacrifice bunt, this time by Allison Montano,


allowed Trammell to get all the way to third as Verrado didn’t have anybody covering that base following the out at first. It turned out to be a big play, as Ashley Godfrey then reached on an infield error and Trammell scored. Had she been at second she would not have made it home. “It’s kind of our strategy,” Brungardt said. “We got in the middle of our batting order and I said ‘Hey, this is an opportunity to come through with a runner on base, and Sarah is so good at playing small ball, so I told her to put a bunt down and she did. It kind of rattled them. We got a couple more runs from there.” Estrella would add another run in the third on an RBI ground out by Durham. Verrado got its lone run in the top of the fourth, as Shea Smith launched a solo home run to center field against Kasia Smith. Otherwise, Kasia did not give Verrado much. She allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out nine. “We were so pumped for this game, we’ve been talking about it the whole season,” Kasia said. “The girls were really pumped up and ready, we got runs. Their pitcher, Shea, threw really well today, but we got the runs that counted.”


Momentum changer Verrado had an opportunity to take the lead in the second inning when Courtney Lacour hit a leadoff double down the left-field line, but Stringer waived her around to try to stretch it into a triple and Estrella gunned her down with a perfect relay from Trammell to Godfrey to Durham. “We’re going to be aggressive, really trying to spark something, and they made a great play,” Stringer said. “[Trammell] made a great diving effort, it got by, we went ahead and gambled, Courtney Lacour can really run. Unfortunately they made two perfect throws. She got the ball quick, hit the cut off, the cut off relayed perfectly and we were dead, it wasn’t close. It was my fault. I took the risk and take responsibility for it. In games like this, we


View file photo by Ray Thomas


KASIA SMITH pitches for Estrella Foothills against Desert Edge March 14. Smith threw a complete-game four-hitter to lead the Lady Wolves to a 4-1 triumph Tuesday. In the process, Smith improved her record to 22-0.


have to gamble and try to put pressure on them, like they did to us.” Relay throws are something Estrella works on all the time, Brafford said. In this instance, it proved their practice efforts very beneficial. “That was a huge play, it completely destroyed their momentum,” Kasia said. “Without that play it could have been a different ballgame.” Brafford and Trammell each had two hits for Estrella,


while Alex Fedo, Tatum Reedy, Durham and Taylor Godfrey added one apiece. Aside from Shea Smith’s homer and Lacour’s double, Kaylah Hampton also had a double, and Lauren Serrato collected the Lady Vipers’ other hit. Shea allowed eight hits and two walks in suffering the


pitching loss. Only two of the four runs allowed were earned, and she struck out one.


“Shea pitched really well and she had thrown against them prior in the tournament and threw well, so we knew she had the stuff to go out there and compete,” Stringer said. “So we went with her today. We have three games this week and needed to save Morgan [Brown] for another day. We have a lot of confidence in Shea.” Verrado hosted Westview Thursday, the result was


unavailable at press time, and play at 7 tonight at Agua Fria. Estrella will look to keep its undefeated record intact when hosting Gila Bend at 3:45 p.m. today.


Casey Pritchard can be reached by email at cpritchard@westvalleyview.com.


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